Running Time

Josh Becker's "Running Time" is a remarkably effective and economical heist flick shot in black and white with the illusion of being a single take. These stylistic anomalies may draw your attention at first, but "Running Time" is more than its experimental hook. It's a good, taut thriller with a sharp comic edge. It also has a refreshingly brisk pace (clocking in at about 70 minutes long).

Bruce Campbell is excellent in the lead role as Carl, an ex-con whose plan for the perfect heist is undone by the incompetence of his partner Patrick (Jeremy Roberts) and a general case of Murphy's law. Anita Barone also gives a winning performance as Carl's former high school squeeze, Janie.

"Running Time" is a fine film that deserves a wider audience. Help start the trend.

It's an idea with the potential to go wrong, but Hitchcock made it work with Rope, and now Josh Becker has done the same with Running Time; a film with the word 'cult' written all over it! The fact that this film is shot in black and white makes it stand out somewhat from the crowd of nineties films, but it's the way that it's filmed that is Running Time's claim to fame. Becker shoots the film in one continuous shot that follows around lead character Carl through one day. This idea worked brilliantly for Hitchcock, but I was worried that it might not work so well for a movie about a heist - but it really couldn't have worked better! As mentioned, the plot follows Carl Metushka - a man newly released from prison. He meets up with his buddy, and it soon becomes apparent that Carl hasn't decided to stay away from the life of crime. No, he and his friend have a heist planned and we watch as they pick up a couple of people needed for the heist, and proceed to do the actual robbery...but you can't expect a plan like this to go off without a hitch.

The fact that Running Time is filmed in one continuous shot means that it's very easy to get into. This is complimented by the running time, which is extremely short at just sixty five minutes, and means that the film really doesn't have time to get boring. Becker keeps things interesting with a constant flow of action, and some rather amusing dialogue, which ensures that the film constantly makes for fun viewing. One of my major reasons for seeing this film was because of the presence of B-movie maestro Bruce Campbell. Campbell has a lot of charisma, and this shines through excellently in this film. Campbell is a very handsome man, and Becker makes good use of that fact with his role here. The rest of the cast are secondary to Campbell, but good use is made of all of them, and they all give realistic performances. The film is a little preposterous as certain things, the ending especially, are a little silly -but it really doesn't matter as Josh Becker's experiment is a huge success and overall, I can't not recommend that everyone takes the time to track Running Time down!

Nicely made black and white movie with some very nice acting.

Carl (Bruce Campbell), once a popular highschool student gets released from prison after serving 5 years for a heist gone bad. Outside, his friend and partner Patrick awaits his release so they can go rob a bank, but when he meets the girl he left behind in highschool 15 years ago he stands with a difficult choice of having to choose the money or her.

The movie was just over an hour and since it seemed very live we get to see all the actors really putting in a great effort to make this movie good.

It seems obvious to me that the creators of this film realized early on that they were working with script that is cliche, predictable and wholly uninteresting. So, instead of trying to make the story itself interesting, they decided to shoot it in what they must have believed to be an interesting way. Long takes, few cuts, real time, real mess.

These sort of films may be attention grabbing from an experimental veiwpoint, but don't offer much in the way of good storytelling. Movies are traditionally cut and edited the way they are for a very good reason...it works. While some may consider this style of filmmaking challenging and artistic, I think lazy is more on point: strap a steadicam operator with a rig, have him run around following the action for an ungodly amount of time and it only takes you two days to edit, wow!

The negative effects of shooting a film in such a way far outweigh the possible benefits. Sickening camera shifts (think Blair Witch), stagnant camera angles, and uneven acting performances are all inevitable results. Plus, it seems to me that the value of such extended takes come as a result of their scarcity. P.T. Anderson understands this, and while he almost always incorporates a long take or two in his films, they serve as juxtapose the more traditional shooting style and, are therefore interesting.

While "Running Time" may be a fascinating filmmaking exercise, this bizarre and ineffective shooting style, when combined with a poorly written script make this movie practically unwatchable and certainly unenjoyable. It appears as if the creator of this film was making it solely for himself and not for a viewing audience, which is fine, but these sort of pieces are better suited for film school projects than feature film releases.

Very enjoyable, oddball little shortie. When Carl got out of the pen after five years for theft, he and his idiotic best friend went directly into another heist. From the very start nothing went anywhere except the wrong way for these bungling losers. These stupids even hired a junkie as the getaway driver. Gad! When this caper went totally awry I thought Carl and his buddy should have had a lot more trouble getting away from the crime scene. They merely ran down pretty much deserted streets with no one chasing them even though three shooters were only seconds behind at one point. Although fun to watch the entire thing was just too unbelievable; no way these jackasses could have escaped the area without giving themselves away. Anita Barone was fine as the broken hearted hooker who badly needed to put her trust in someone.